Positive Exploration Update, Kossanto Gold Project

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Alecto Minerals plc / EPIC: ALO / Market: AIM / Sector: General Financial

8 October 2013

Alecto Minerals ('Alecto' or 'the Company')

Successful Trenching and Soil Sampling Programme Demonstrates Value Upside Potential at Kossanto Gold Project

Alecto Minerals (ALO), the AIM listed mining exploration company focusing on West and East Africa, is pleased to update the market on the Company's exploration activities at its Kossanto Gold Project, West Mali.

Highlights:

· Trenching and soil sampling at Gourbassi East demonstrated the following positive results:

o Trenching over the Gourbassi East Main Zone reveals high grade mineralisation related to previously untested East-West orientated structures with grades of up to 14m @ 3.71 g/t gold ('Au')

o Trenching to south of the Main Zone has revealed a new zone of mineralisation; 150 m in strike length, with grades of up to 22m @ 0.82 g/t Au and open along strike in both directions

o Soil geochemistry around the Gourbassi East prospect has revealed low order (+30ppb Au) kilometre-scale structured anomalies of up to 2.5km strike length and more than 100m width

o New targets identified with soil sampling outlined high order (+50ppb) gold-in-soil (Au-in-soil) anomalies including Gourbassi North-West Zone and South-East Extension Zone

· Rotary Air Blast ('RAB') drilling planned in high order Au-in-soil anomalies along with expansion of soil sample area to commence at the end of the wet season (November 2013)

· 100 line-km of ground magnetic survey planned over the high order Au-in-soil anomalies using Alecto owned equipment and expertise

Alecto Minerals CEO Mark Jones said: "The Kossanto Gold Project in Mali has both a solid resource of 107,000 ounces of gold at our Gourbassi East target and strong prospectivity in new areas, as further demonstrated by these latest exploration results. The new mineralisation within the current resource area builds further confidence in our near term goal of increasing our gold resources and the identification of new anomalies throughout the wider tenure is exciting, particularly given that a number of large-scale gold deposits discovered in the region to date are associated with broad-scale soil anomalies at or above the 50ppb Au threshold. Our next task will be to undertake RAB drilling, using our own equipment, to increase our exposure to the inherent value apparent within our tenure, which is located in a highly prospective gold district."

Further Information

Following the successful Reverse Circulation ('RC') drill programme in 2012, which culminated in an Inferred resource estimate of 2.35 Mt grading 1.42g/t Au for 107,000 oz Au by Wardell Armstrong International, work has concentrated on improving the structural understanding of the Gourbassi East Prospect, finding extensions to the Main Zone and discovering more targets. This has been completed principally using trenching, soil geochemistry and pitting, all of which have provided positive results.

Trenching Work Programe

A trenching programme of 539m was completed over the Gourbassi East prospect using a mechanised excavator, with 1 meter composite samples collected using horizontal channel sampling and split to approximately 2kg. These were then sent to a certified laboratory in Bamako for normal Au assay using Fire Assay on 50g (Code: FAA 505).

Trenching over the Gourbassi East Main Zone revealed high grade mineralisation related to previously untested E-W trending structures clearly shown by a N-S orientated trench. Grades of up to 14m @ 3.71 g/t Au (including 10 m @ 5.72 g/t) were reported from strongly deformed, silicified rhyolites. Previous work has concentrated on the NNW-SSE orientation of the mineralisation and may have missed the higher grade cross cutting features apparent in the newly completed N-S trench, which will be the subject of future work. Another short trench over an exploration pit and anomalous soil geochemistry 100m E of the Main Zone gave 5m @ 2.44 g/t Au provides a possible extension to the Main Zone.

A series of trenches to the south-west of the Main Zone have discovered a new area of mineralisation over a strike length of 150m. This mineralised body is open along strike in both directions and may represent an offset or splay from the Main Zone structure, with a strong possibility of finding mineralisation between the two bodies and further along strike to the south. This zone is delineated by the high grades in the new trenches of 22m @ 0.82 g/t and 4m @ 1.8 g/t, plus an intercept from a previous RC hole of 16m @ 0.99 g/t; proving the potential both at depth and near surface. The mineralisation style is different to that of the silicified rhyolites in the Main Zone, with hematite and limonite quartz stockworks and granodiorites associated with the gold grades. This new type of mineralisation is encouraging and increases the prospectivity of the Kossanto Project.

Soil Sampling

The results of several detailed soil geochemical surveys initiated across the Gourbassi East prospect have outlined km-scale, low order (+30ppb) gold-in-soil anomalies coincident with geophysical structures. High order geochemical concentrations of +50ppb Au exist within the broader anomalous zones.

The first of these anomalies offers a 1km long and 100 m wide extension to the south of the Gourbassi East Main Zone. Soil anomalies of correlate with a N-S striking IP resistivity structure along with pit samples of up 0.49 g/t Au and RAB drilling intercepts up to 12m @ 0.40 g/t Au.

Another larger anomaly exists to the NE, with significant gold-in-soil values found across a NW striking zone of 2.5km. Within this anomaly, several areas of +100 ppb soils samples are present, with additional pit samples of up to 1.69 g/t and RAB drilling intercepts up to 18m @ 0.39 g/t proving an in situ origin to the mineralisation.

Multiple discrete anomalies of limited extensions but soil sample assay results of up to 200ppb has also been discovered.

The soil sampling programme provided significant extensions to areas of known high order (+50ppb) gold-in-soil anomalism including the Main Zone defined by previous soil sampling survey.

A number of large-scale gold deposits discovered in the region to date are associated with broad-scale soil anomalies at or above the 50ppb Au threshold. Therefore, the current soil sampling programme indicates significant potential for discovery of large-scale gold deposits.

Planned Work Programme

A follow-up field exploration programme has been planned in order to evaluate the potential of the numerous significant gold anomalies in the Gourbassi Permit. This programme will include close spaced follow up soil sampling over the afore-mentioned anomalies and several wider grids over areas as yet untested. Ground magnetics and RAB drilling will then be completed over the strongest anomalies.

Multiples Zones of High Order Soil Anomalism

The soil sampling program has defined multiple zones of high order Au-in-soil anomalism that include:

South Extension zone

· +1000m soil anomaly at over +50ppb Au, up to 100m wide striking NS.

· Soil assay value up to 220ppb Au, average grade of 72ppb Au (within 50ppb contour)

· Exploration pits sample value up to 0.49ppm Au

· Single RAB hole returned 12m @ 0.40ppm Au

North East Zone

· +2500m soil anomaly at over +50ppb Au, up to 100m wide striking NE

· Soil assay value up to 290ppb Au, average grade of 78ppb Au (within 50ppb contour)

· Multiple clusters of +100ppb Au soil values

· Exploration pits sample value up to 1.69ppm Au

Single RAB hole returned [email protected] Au

The soil anomalism includes multiple discrete zones with consecutive soil sample value above 50ppb.

Figure 1: Overview of the Gourbassi East Prospect showing gridded soil geochemistry results and planned soil grids and RAB drilling fences. (Please see associated PDF document.)

 **ENDS**

 For further information, please visit www.alectominerals.com or contact: